The North American Cuddlewolf claims a new victim.
I’m sure you’ve already read TNC on white supremacy, but it’s AMAZING (I had amorphously disliked the Jacobin piece so I was happy to see it deconstructed with stats):
The pervasive and distinctive effects of racism are viewable at every level of education from high school drop-outs (see pages 13-14 of this Pew report, especially) to Ivy league graduates. I strongly suspect that if one were to investigate public-health outcomes, exposure to pollution, quality of public education or any other vector relating to socio-economic health, a similar pattern would emerge.
Such investigations are of little use to Johnson, who prefers ideas over people, and jargon divorced of meaningful investigation. The “black managerial elite” are invoked without any attempt to quantify their numbers and power. “Institutional racism” is presented as a figment, without actually defining what it is, and why, in Johnson’s mind, it is insignificant. “Black plunder” is invoked in Chicago, with no effort to examine its effects or compare it to “white plunder.” Johnson tells us that “universal social policies” and an expanded “public sector” built the black middle class. He seems unaware that the same is true of the “white middle class.” A useful question might arise from such awareness: Has the impact of “universalist social policies” been equal across racial lines? Johnson can not be bothered with such questions as he is preoccupied with —in his own words—“solidarity.”
I am not opposed to solidarity, in and of itself, but I would have its basis made clear. When an argument is divorced of this clarity, then deflection, subject-changing, abstraction, and head-fakes—as when Johnson exchanges“laborers” for the victims of white supremacy—all become inevitable.
I read this through my fingers (so many of today’s links came from This.cm today, by the way, you should really get on that.) Also, never, ever respond to people like this, it only demeans everyone involved:
“Dear Alan,” I responded, as generously as I could, “I’m sorry, but I can’t figure out where we know each other from. So I’m puzzled by your P.S. I’m certainly not ignoring anything, but there is a far more to read than can ever be read. When I catch up on my students, my deadlines, and new work by close friends, I’ll be sure to check it out.”
Alan was not appeased. “Your entire profession,” he wrote back, “has preferred to bury their heads in the sand and refuse to credit my literary/creative genius and/or the outrageous pedagogical stupidity that you have all implicitly supported. And either way I just want you to know that you need to think about the price of this behavior. That one day people will know that your profession is either incredibly inept and or outrageously dishonest. And either way that likely will translate into a crisis for the humanities that you likely are not nearly prepared for. So just be warned. And understand that I will be continuing to work to bring about this very unpleasant and undesirable scenario.”
If you are in NYC on March 2nd, you HAVE to go see Alex Chee (these other things sound cool too!)
LOVED these old bobbed-hair personal essays:
There has been so much controversy over the bobbed-hair craze that I feel I ought to put some of the world right, as to my side of it at least. I do not claim to be the first person to wear bobbed hair; in fact, I believe there are a number of people who, like myself, picture Joan of Arc with shorn locks! There have been several periods in history when women wore short hair. It is easier to be the first person to do a thing than the first to introduce it, and I believe I am largely blamed for the homes wrecked and engagements broken because of clipped tresses. I do not wish to take the blame, because in a great number of case I find the responsibility a serious one and the results a “chamber of horrors.”
Q. Husband is interested in a threesome with his best friend: My husband and I are in our 20s. We’ve been together over 10 years and have two kids. Our sex life is great, but my husband does masturbate a lot. He found a porn video with a girl who looks exactly like me—super creepy! He asked me several times if I had cheated on him. About a week later he asked me if I would want to have a threesome with his childhood best friend, someone I’ve known for 18 years. He said he picked him because he’s seen him naked before, and because he’s not married and not attractive (at all, eww, although my husband says he’s not THAT bad) and therefore not a threat to steal me away. I don’t know if it’s just super gross and offensive because of who he picked or if I would feel like that with anyone. We do like to get kinky, but I don’t know about this. Please help.
Jughead is asexual! It’s canon now:
Zdarsky had actually talked about Jughead’s asexuality last September during an interview with ComicBook.com. “There have been iterations of Jughead over the decades where he has been interested in girls, so there’s room to play around if someone was inclined. For me though, I like an asexual Jughead,” he said. “That’s more interesting to me than writing him as just being behind everyone developmentally.”
If you’re in Toronto in March, go to this:
Heritage Toronto and Women in Toronto Politics invite you to join us in a dynamic evening of celebrating phenomenal women and the struggle for social justice in Toronto.
Toronto the Just is an exhibit featuring the stories of eight women from Toronto’s past and present who have challenged inequality and discrimination based on gender, sexuality, race, class, and ability.
Maris on finding love (also, Josh is actually objectively great):
Before I met Josh I had lived alone for ten years, fiercely independent and somewhat proud of the regimen of weird habits and eccentricities I’d developed. I was committed to the idea that I didn’t need a man to be happy, but still, I wanted a boyfriend. I hated myself for pining for the heteronormative ideal of romance–all that stupid old shit, as Liz Phair sang in the 1994 single lady anthem “Fuck and Run.” But I did want it, with an intensity that made me feel like a subpar feminist and a failure at doing things that normal women have been doing since the beginning of time. And one of the most dismal parts of experiencing this kind of longing is that I was the victim of a certain brand of single lady concern trolling disguised as friendly advice. Everyone had words of wisdom (often unsolicited!) about how I should fix myself, as if singledom was an ailment for which I could find a cure if only I tried hard enough and took the appropriate steps to get healthy.
I’m here to tell you that I didn’t do anything differently than I normally did. I didn’t fundamentally change any part of myself to finally find a happy relationship: I didn’t read a slew of self-help books and start going to SoulCycle to Get Right. I didn’t try a new dating app or a new therapist, and I didn’t arrive at some place of spiritual enlightenment at the end of which I announced to the world, “I am ready for love,” with my arms outstretched in the air. Reader, I got lucky. That’s it. For once in my life I got phenomenally lucky. I’m still the same old me with the same insecurities and biases and hangups but now I’ve found someone I love very much who loves me back. My before and after photos look almost identical, except I’m not alone in the after one.
Everyone is re-reading this piece on what’s wrong with New Hampshire as we approach the primary, and my eyes got SO WIDE:
New Hampshire is a fraud.
Which is to say that behind that idyll of white-steepled, sleigh-belled, town-meeting, republican-with-a-small-R America lurks a much realer and hidden New Hampshire — the souvenir hustlers, backwoods cranks, motorcycle racing fans, out-of-state writers, dour French Canadians and tax-dodging Massachusetts suburbanites who have conspired as New Hampshire has conspired for two centuries to create an illusion of noble, upright, granite-charactered sentinels of liberty out of little more than a self-conscious collection of bad (if beautiful) land, summer people, second-growth woods full of junked cars and decaying aristocracy, lakes howling with speedboats, state liquor stores that are open on Sundays and the most vicious state newspaper in America — the Manchester Union Leader, which recently greeted the birthday of Martin Luther King by describing him as a Communist dupe.
Rembert on white privilege:
The sheer premise of woke is comical, since it most certainly is a myth: Once a white person has fulfilled the necessary requirements to prove a true understanding of their white privilege, they are anointed (typically by black consignees) woke. You are an elevated, “awakened” white person. The term is the evolutionary advancement of down, a once-popular way to describe a white person who understands, or is even well-versed in, certain aspects of black culture (see: Julia Stiles by the end of Save the Last Dance). While down implied the sheer knowledge of things, woke is almost this assumed, inherent understanding. One can get there in a variety of ways: a racially savvy conversation on Twitter (that certainly could have just been a private text message); a selfie of one wearing a James Baldwin T-shirt while reading Just Mercy on the train; a lengthy Facebook post about how mad one is about that thing on that day; or questioning the intentions of lesser “woke” white people. It’s funny because, in actuality, there are few better examples of white privilege than white people crafting their own perfect “woke” narrative and having it work. Or bringing nonwhite people quickly into their inner circle and using them as a stamp of authenticity. Or thinking they can defuse skepticism in their ability to grasp their own white privilege with one action — a song, a conversation, a speech, a tweet — and actually succeed.
OMG who is that giant dog and what did she do with tiny puppy Sansa?
i stand by my assessment that THAT is a bear.
Someone needs to tell Nicole that Sansa was stolen and replaced with a bear. Or the bear ate Sansa.
Every time I see a picture of her I’m like WHEN DID SHE GET SO BIG???
One thing I miss about belonging to an English Department is doing hammy readings of all the unsolicited copies of self-published nonsense and then cackling like hags. The price of that behavior was so, so low and the rewards so, so high. Sorry not sorry, Alan.
one of my best friends is trying to self-publish his poems and i haven’t had the heart to pull a Beyonce and tell him “I really like you, but this is awful”
Which is also pulling a David Bowie, apparently! I’m so tickled my musical faves have metaphorically patted Chris Martin on the head like a daft, but eager child.
“Oh sweetie, I’m proud of you for trying, but no.”
Good morning Toast! Over here in Europe it is late afternoon and I’m hopelessly stuck wrt a thing I need to finish by this evening. I have tried both JUST BUCKLE DOWN AND DO IT and Distract Yrself With Something Else To Clear Your Head; still not getting anywhere. It’s beginning to feel like college term paper writing season over here. Advice/cheerleading? (I am successfully not reading the Link Roundup, please shower me with praise.)
Excellent restraint! Go you! Write like the wind! (i must also get off my dead butt and get some work done…)
Yeah, I”m avoiding what I’m supposed to be doing, so I can’t really give you good advice. But you have my sympathy. Sometimes a pomodoro timer works for me–I use marinara timer (http://www.marinaratimer.com/) because I can adjust the time. Or sometimes I just bribe myself with “work for 2 minutes, eat this piece of candy, “work for 2 minutes, eat another piece of candy.” Or break it down into very, very, very small tasks. So, if I’m writing, I’ll check the spacing in a paragraph. Do spell check. Rewrite one sentence. Doing one makes it easier to do another, and then after a bit I can focus better.
Good luck!
Yes to the writing hacks! My favorite things that get me to work when I’m writing (academic journal submissions): spell check. Check the formatting of my references. Format tables and figures. Make a title page. Eventually, I’m doing real work!
High five for having similar hacks!
The only silver bullet I had during college term writing season was REALLY INTENSE EXERCISE. Just, hopping on a treadmill and pushing myself into high speeds for as much of 30 minutes as I could manage. It let my brain stop trying to write the whole term paper simultaneously, so I could focus on one piece of it at a time.
Good luck and I know you can do it!
Same here. With the additional “success” of not having left the house yet because it’s raining and still not having done anything productive.
“I’ve tried nothing, and I’m all out of ideas!”
“I’ve tried nothing, and I’m all out of ideas!”
PRETTY MUCH! It’s also raining here, I’m working from home, and the wind is making scary noises in the balconies.
I know this sounds like a combination of the two things you’ve already tried, but I am a big believer in the UFYH 20/10. Twenty minutes of Doing That Thing, ten minutes of reading link roundup posts. Twenty more minutes of Doing That Thing. Another short break. Etc. I use an online timer (because my preferred break activity is mucking around on the internet, and whenever I’m tempted to look at my browser the timer countdown stares me in the face) and a workbuddy to hold me accountable, if one is available.
Also, the Hamilton soundtrack. (“Why do you write like you’re running out of time?”)
This is great advice. I have already added several words to this document!
I’m also a big fan of UFYH. I made a couple of playlists that are about 20 mins long, and I just work while the music is going and when it stops, have a break. Like musical chairs but for work.
This is a great idea that I am going to steal!
I did not realize that UFYH used the same timer thing as the pomodoro method (except pomodoro’s default is 20 on/5 off). Great minds think alike? or need some kind of timer to make them focus? And I totally agree that it works! Sometimes.
I am currently on my short break (20/5, but same idea) for a ton of coding I need to get done today AND I am listening to the Hamilton soundtrack. Would heartily recommend! (Though I will say that I don’t usually like writing or reading with lyrics on, analysis and coding is slightly different for me. In those cases, I usually have an instrumental album or white noise (I really like Noisli for soothing combinations).
You always feel unproductive in that afternoon lag period. Depending what suits you, I’d suggest an extra shot of caffeine or sugar to give you a boost. Once you get properly stuck in, you’ll just breeze through, but getting the motivation to finish when it feels like you’ve a sheer cliff face to climb is tough.
I also listen to Barbra’s version of ‘Don’t Rain on my Parade’ on repeat. In my mind I have Fanny Brice’s immaculate manicure and I’m on that goddamn tugboat. And any task becomes easy!
i have no advice. let me shake my pom-poms for you.
Sometimes I find it useful to just make my arguments as ungrammatical bullet points with plenty of asterisks and blank spaces with things like (citation here?) and (expand argument for 2-3 sentences). then do some copy pasting so related subjects are together in paragraph-like chunks and then try to fill in the gaps. Staring at a blank page is the worst
That was my method for developing presentations – jot down the key points and then arrange them for flow then fill out all the (xxx insert stats/graph?) notations.
Not that it’ll ever get the kind of broad pick-up that Archie does, but Sex Criminals also featured (features? tbd) an asexual woman who BASE jumps into the Quiet. Maybe Jughead gets there via hamburger.
I liked but didn’t love Sex Criminals when I tried it, but that sounds really cool.
That actually makes me want to read more of Sex Criminals.
Same. I read the first volume and enjoyed it lots but didn’t follow any more. Probably because I read it in my Hugo Packet which also contained Saga, Ms. Marvel vol 1 and Rat Queens.
Social Justice Paladin t-shirt! Because I promised to post the link when I convinced my friend to publish the design, here it is. Everyone should join me in Tanking For The Cause!
https://www.teepublic.com/show/404680-social-just…
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! Yay! And IT IS EVEN AVAILABLE ON A TANK, because, you know, tanking! #bestest
Hannibal Buress also has an “advice” column this week at The AV Club and he straight up refuses to answer a question he thought was fake. It’s delightful.
“We all die, so just look at people” is probably the best advice I’ve ever read.
If Mallory ever needs a week off from Dear Prudie, I think Hannibal would do an admirable job as her substitute
I’m imagining all of these responses in his voice and it’s great. I also love how some of the advice seems to make sense (hung up on a football player? don’t watch Friday Night Lights!!!!) but is actually spectacularly unhelpful.
I hope no one writing to a comedian in a comedy column is looking for a serious answer! But I love how half the advice is the “oh my god, dude, this is going to be awkward, just do it and deal with the awkward” advice you know traditional columnists wish they could give. (And Mallory-Prudie does give.)
“What do you want me to tell you, JUST DO IT” is actually not bad advice, even from a comedian.
“The best way to get over somebody you know isn’t good for you? Usually murder. You kill that person and it’s like, well, that’s not happening anymore.”
How did that work out in Rebecca, though?
This is great.
“You’re just used to polite British sex. [Meekly.] ‘Oh, oh. So nice. Oh, that was great.’ It’s probably not even that loud. It’s probably just the exchange rate and shit that makes it seem like it’s louder.”
My word, this is spectacular.
That’s pretty great, but it also reminded me that I haven’t read Savage Love for probably two or three months now. I don’t have a grudge against Dan Savage the way a lot of people seem to, but reading the column had sort of turned into a chore; sometimes it seems like writing it has also become a chore for Savage, since he often farms out the answers to a visiting expert of sorts. It’s nice to get a different perspective, but still.
I was already excited about this and then in the intro they mention that he has a new stand-up special on Netflix and then I went to add it to my Netflix list and discovered he has TWO MORE (older) specials on Netflix as well! I don’t know how I missed them but this is an unexpected bounty!
Toast– We closed on our house yesterday morning. And then i went to work. And then we moved from one place to another with the help and perseverence of stoic Russian men we found on Craigslist and when they left I drank a bottle of champagne by myself and ate chicken wings while sitting on the floor. This morning, I woke up in my own bed, in my own home and walked to the office blasting “Formation” on a loop and it feels like a whole new world!
THANK YOU SO MUCH TO ALL THE TOASTIES who were so helpful during the long bs OMG WTF EVEN process that is buying a home right now. It is the worst. The absolute worst. But when you’re done you’re finally home! So thanks everyone!!!
I like the idea that there is a ‘stoic Russian men’ section on Craigslist.
WooHOOOOO!!! Super mega congrats. You are not going to have to move again for a long time! You can accumulate all sorts of oddities and make decisions about what to do with your space and you don’t have to answer to anyone. You’re home! Hooray!
I had Rembert’s piece open and was about to post it here. Great Minds. I have super low brow taste in music and actually do enjoy some of Macklemore’s music, but White Privilege II is just way too long. Still, I do love Rembert’s writing on it.
I also thought it paired well with this piece on Beyonce and how she is working on both her art and her politics. http://www.thefader.com/2016/02/08/beyonce-format… While Beyonce is a lot more critically acclaimed (I would agree with that), but it is interesting watching artists change in public, through their art.
I’m always going to enjoy Macklemore, I’ve just accepted that my music taste is in general problematic. I can accept that, and analyze it, and then listen to “Can’t Hold Us” a million times with my kid. And not to be That Woman, but I’ve liked him since before The Heist, back when he was doing My Oh My.
I’m on This dot com, but know few people who are and it doesn’t work that well for me because I have no idea who to follow. So, Toasties on This thread? Who’s on there and how do I find you? I’ll have to look for my own information, as it’s been a while since I signed in and can’t even remember which email address I used, but I’ll add it here when I find it.
Can anyone tell me what this website even is? I’m not great at figuring out the utility of new technology on my own.
Hey there, This it’s a site where you can share one – just one! – link a day, along with a brief explanation of why you think it’s important, rather like the much-missed music website This Is My Jam. I think the idea is that quality will rise to the top, and you can follow various journalists and publications that you’re interested in.
I haven’t noticed many people from the UK on there, and there doesn’t seem to be much dialogue or engagement going on, but it has a higher signal-to-noise ration than Twitter, for instance. I think it’s a nice-to-have extra, rather than something you’ll be seriously missing out on, so don’t feel you have to set up another account there if you’re already feeling a bit of social media overwhelm!
I’m here, if you want to see the kind of things I’ve been sharing: https://this.cm/rosieclarke
Thank you for the explanation! I don’t use a lot of social media specifically because of the low signal-to-noise ratio, so this might actually be something I’ll use! [clicks on link, sees her work browser freak out about security certificates] Oops.
I’m hedwig on there, but I only share articles every once in a while.
I have one? but I continually forget to use it. Here’s my link if you want to follow me? https://this.cm/deenuhh I’ll follow you though, because I always love following Toasties on any and all social media!
I am basically only using This to find what other people post because I fear commitment//can’t get the This poster to post for me besides the once. but I’m this.cm/obstinacy and will be following all y’all.
I’m there, but I haven’t really got the hang of using it yet.
https://this.cm/alula_auburn
Okay, mine is here: https://this.cm/smiavs84/follow but apparently the only thing I’ve shared was a Toast piece. 🙂 No surprise. I may become more active if I have people to follow, though.
Here is a good interview with a lady who wrote a book about the history of celibate priests in England and Normandy after the 11th century, if anyone is interested in that kind of thing:
http://notchesblog.com/2016/02/09/the-manly-pries…
“if anyone is interested in that kind of thing”
a.k.a. all of us here 🙂
Yeah who is NOT interested in that kind of thing?
hahaha “if”
This is the perfect reading for me today. I already want to go hide in my misandrist safe room so that I don’t strangle my spouse. Men! Effing other men up for fucking ever, and making it our problem! *sigh*
So…..we’re just going to pretend Big Ethel never existed? Is she even in the new iteration of Archie comics? Does she have a purpose beyond fruitlessly chasing Jughead and making awkward girls everywhere feel bad about themselves? Now there’s a character who could use a badass, girl-affirming storyline.
(not that it was at all traumatizing to be a tall awkward girl with buck teeth who found the rare girl who looked like me in pop culture only to see her basically exist to be ridiculed and humiliated. not at all)
From an interview with Chip Zdarsky, the writer of Jughead:
SK/PC: Now that we have Archie and Jughead revamped, who do you want to see next? Dilton? Chuck? Big Ethel?
CZ: Dilton and Chuck make appearances in our series! I’m kind of sitting back to see what Mark and Fiona have in store for Big Ethel before we make her a presence…
Jughead’s only three issues in, Archie’s only five; there’s lots of room to grow. Based on how out-of-the-park amazing the series has been so far at increasing diversity of all kinds in Riverdale, revamping tired and cliched characters, and generally just making the world of Archie fucking interesting, I have no doubt that Ethel will turn out okay. You should check out the series!
Not sure if she’s in the latest iteration; her Wikipedia page hasn’t been updated lately. I think that she was in the book in a more “glammed-up” iteration in the early aughts.
Re: The Prudie Threesome thing:
First off, yes, good advice, in that if you aren’t interested in something a sex partner suggests re: sex, just say so. If they’ve had an enjoyable sex life thus far, they can probably find enough things they both are excited about to sustain them, and if not wanting a threesome with this particular dude is a deal breaker, well, it’s better to know that as early as possible, right?
That said.
Group sex comes with risks. Ignoring the normal all-sex-has-risks stuff, group sex has additional concerns/joys. Some people can separate Sex and Feelings, some can’t or don’t. Some people have strong opinions about their sex partners having either Sex or Feelings or Both with other people.
Lots of people try to set up a threesome situation that’s enjoyable to all parties, and includes Sex, but definitely not Feelings, and definitely no awkwardness before, during, or after.
That hardly ever works.
And when you try to avoid Feelings and Awkwardness so hard that you miss that the point of the Sex is for people to have fun and enjoy themselves? uuuuuuuuuuuuuuugh yes, that’s super gross. If you’re insecure enough to want to specifically pick someone you find unattractive so that your sex partner won’t possibly pick the other person, you should not be having a threesome, you are not ready.
Yup yup yup on that last bit. Picking a guy because of the fact that his wife finds him unattractive is definitely the part that announces “this is all about me!” He has to make sure that the sex is so unappealing to his wife that she’ll never do it outside of the confines of his dictates without the burden of having to trust her. Which, ew.
If you’re insecure enough to want to specifically pick someone you find unattractive so that your sex partner won’t possibly pick the other person, you should not be having a threesome, you are not ready.
If we take the husband at face value, I agree completely.
But it occurred to me there’s another possible explanation: the husband might be looking to have a sexual encounter with his old friend in a way that’s totally not gay at all, nope, we’re all straight here! And of course that’s also pretty far from healthy–seeking to use your partner as a very literal middle party in working out some tension in your own identity might be okay, but only if everyone involved explicitly acknowledges that’s what’s going on. In this context, though, it looks like a recipe for disaster.
Sansa is so large and fluffy! I can’t handle it.
You might already have seen this article about how Netflix has tagged its catalogue to create extremely specific micro-genres to help recommend movies (and TV shows?) to users. I reread it this morning and…at first, it seemed like a really exciting innovation. Wouldn’t it be great if there was a system for tagging books like this? It’d make it so much easier to find new stuff to read!
But the more I think about it, the more I realize that this type of tagging is basically useless to me. It’s not tracking the somewhat nebulous qualities I’m looking for, like female characters with agency, or male leads who don’t mistake misogyny for edginess, or a group of misfits who accidentally become a family, or–you get the idea. Netflix’s type of micro-genres might get me to hit play, but I’m not likely to watch it all the way through.
How about you guys?
I really hate algorithns that think they can predict what I like better than I can. I know that people as a whole are predictable (I am no stranger to using Big Data), but I am an individual who sometimes watches things or reads books outside of my comfort zone or makes unusual Amazon purchases or does unusual Google searches and algorothms are always REALLY bad at predicting what I like and what I want.
I appreciate having an algorithm available to me to make suggestions when I seek them out, but I have never had better suggestions from an algorithm than from a friend, and Netflix’s past suggestions of what to watch have been universally unappealing.
(With the exception of reminders about new episodes of shows I already know I like. That part’s nice.)
I definitely remember after watching a bunch of Lost Girl on top of my usual British mysteries (pretty sure I had just run through Rosemary and Thyme, this was pre-Miss Fisher), I triggered a “quirky dramas with female leads” categories… and other than Alias everything on there was an indie romantic comedy. So hopefully the algorithm has been refined since fourish years ago.
Doubtful…because that’s not a failure with the algorithm, it’s a failure with the tagging.
Awwww, Rosemary and Thyme. I rewatch that whenever I feel like I need to be hugged.
What good is tagging if we can’t use it to filter out everything on Netflix about Hitler?
But seriously, what good is all that tagging unless we can use it? I want to be able to search for “Japanese language -animated -yakuza”, and “drama -murder”, and “documentary -conspiracy”, and things like that!
Murder dramas! How is this not a tag that exists?
Crime Drama is #6889 http://whatsonnetflix.com/netflix-hacks/the-netfl…
No, I want “drama minus murder”! Like maybe “(2150 AND 10398) NOT 6889”.
THIS is a good suggestion.
I for real wish more tagging systems/search functions made it easier (or possible) to put in NOT THIS/NONE OF THAT.
Boo to Netflix’s tagging system. My Netflix doesn’t seem to understand that I won’t watch crappy films, even if they fit the algorithm.
Look, Netflix, I love The Birdcage, and I might watch Burlesque when I get very drunk, but Walking on Sunshine? We both know it’s total shite. I even gave it one star. Why are you still showing it to me?
I really enjoy Netflix’s tagging/recommendations – while I do have specific shows and stuff that I seek out, I also get a kick out of randomly browsing or trying out a recommended film I’ve never heard of.
Netflix has actually created a list for me, based on my previous film selections, that is “Movies with strong female protagonists.” Thanks to that list, I had the pleasure of watching the Indonesian movie The Golden Cane Warrior, which is a really well-done martial arts flick with a teenage girl as the protagonist. I never would have known that movie existed if Netflix hadn’t recommended it to me. The “Strong Female Protagonists” list also gave me Wing Chun, a Michelle Yeoh movie from the 90s that had VERY STRONG LESBIAN SUBTEXT (which was inevitably reversed in the final act because otherwise the movie would have run afoul of Chinese censors, no doubt, but still).
So yeah, I’m all about it.
Oh man, your recommendations sound like they’re made of win. I’m going to have to check those out. I haven’t had as much success with mine, but then again I mostly watch TV on netflix so the movie recommendations don’t have much to go on.
If you like kung fu movies, Netflix really has your back. Their selection is pretty good.
I get “strong female protagonists,” too!” I’m a fan. of that genre at least.
It’s often very, very off for me–it suggests horror films to me frequently even though I don’t like them and have never watched one on Netflix.
But once it did recommend the category of “visually-striking exciting revenge movies,” and that is very much a category relevant to my interests. And it also recommends stuff with strong female leads. And when it *keeps* recommending the same thing over and over, I eventually watch it. And I usually like whatever it is.
Ha. Yeah. As part of library school training we actually learned how hard it is to give recommendations. Even recommending books to people based on a book they like is a learned skill and it involves figuring out what specifically they liked about it. It’s the same with movies.
This. I have trouble sometimes figuring out which elements of a book or movie caught my own interest, let alone articulate them to someone else, let alone suss out the same information about another person to make recommendations to them.
I used to work at a Barnes & Noble and the most terrifying customer interaction I ever had was not when the mean old lady yelled at me or when the obnoxious guy who was stalking my coworker sneakily tried to get me to tell him what shifts she was working that week, but when a perfectly normal woman came up to me & said, “I just finished reading Gone Girl and I loved it, can you recommend similar titles?” and I had no idea what to say. I was also the only person working downstairs who wasn’t behind a cash register, since it was 10 p.m., and had no recourse to another bookseller.
I hadn’t read the book myself, so it was hopeless from the start, but even when I asked her what she liked about it, she just did a sort of vague hand-waving motion and said, “You know, it was gripping. I couldn’t put it down. I want to read something like that!” and, friends, I don’t think she walked out of the bookstore satisfied that day.
I was sooo excited about Pandora, before it was Pandora and it was just the music genome project. I mean, really, sounds scientific and impressive, right?
Well, I’ve had a particular Pandora station for 3 years now at least. And I have religiously thumbed-down every.male.voice for THREE YEARS on this station. And every.single.day Pandora tries to get a man-voice on THAT station. I have plenty of other stations. Where I listen to man voices. Sometimes even the man-voices pandora wants on MY station. But Pandora refuses to admit that THAT might be my sorting factor. Couldn’t be “female vocalist” is my only criteria, could it? Noooooooo, she doesn’t know what she REALLLY wants….
ok, I don’t need mansplaining from my damn phone radio. I can only imagine how pissed I’d get at Netflix.
God, i hate that about Pandora.
LOL. Maybe we need to hold out till the machines can program themselves, free from petty human biases and shortsightedness.
I have a similar Pandora problem with a station I’ve had for… ten years? Is that right? Good Lord. Anyway, I have been thumbing down live versions of songs for a full decade, but Pandora stubbornly insists on playing them anyway. Figure it out, Pandora! It’s not that hard! If I like the Foo Fighters, and I like Everlong, but I have thumbed four live versions of it down… WHAT COULD THE DECIDING FACTOR BE?
I realize this is nowhere near as outrageous as Pandora’s refusal to create a woman-only station. I’m just excited(?) to see that someone else has encountered one of these weird pockets of Pandora Blindness, I guess.
I have a station like that, but I’ve realized it’s because Pandora can’t wrap its head around the idea that someone might use Hole as one of their seed artists without actually also wanting the station to play them Nirvana too.
Otherwise, it has been really impressively good at not throwing dudes at me, but every six or seven songs, suddenly here comes Kurt again.
For me it’s the Xmas music playlist – how many different renditions of baby it’s cold outside do I have to thumbs down before you get it Pandora?? And why the hell can’t I have a nonreligious Xmas playlist???
“British Crime Dramas with Strong Female Leads” has been an absolute goldmine of joy for me, as has “Lighthearted Science Fiction TV Series”, but everything else is super hit and miss. I have weird taste in movies I guess.
Ahhh, New Hampshire. What’s that line, about how the rest of the country makes fun of New England, and New England makes fun of New Hampshire, and southern New Hampshire makes fun of northern New Hampshire, and something about the weird dude with the shack on the other side of the hill?
I always found the cowboy hats on citizens of Portsmouth and Newington, NH to be somewhat comical. Guys, you live a mile from the beach.
Of course, in the interest of fairness, MY state just paraded the body of a corrupt ex-mayor around in state like he was Jack Kennedy, so.
Fun fact, New Hampshire did not recognize Martin Luther King day until 2000: http://nhpr.org/post/nhs-martin-luther-king-jr-da…
Definitely a state that’s representative of Our Great Nation, no doubt in my mind! (auuuuggghhhh)
Not entirely true! The University of New Hampshire (my alma mater) always honored it. They did it in defiance of my state being pretty damned racist.
Gonna admit, I don’t really get that Lithub piece? Obviously, the “Alan” fellow is delusional, but I don’t see how writing back with a kind of sappy essay about how of course you’re going to read your friends first is helpful. Not saying the author is doing anything bad by reading his friends, it was just… weird the way he laid it all out. Like “read all these out-of-context paragraphs! Aren’t they better than what you’re doing?”
Not really a coherent critique, I just didn’t get The Point of any of it. Just don’t respond, buddy, “Alan” isn’t a threat to you.
I also had mixed feelings about it. Obviously people can read what they want and people want to support their friends and students, and obviously ‘Alan’ is unpleasant, and it’s not like this person is a Gatekeeper of Literature or anything. But is insularity something to write a noble essay about? I’m also having trouble wrangling my thoughts on it in a coherent way!
Yeah I’m with you. He seems a bit blind to the fact that there are reasons why he’s surrounded by friends/friends of friends/random acquaintances who write thoughtful essays about death or blues-inspired poetry or whatever. He tries to act like he’s not some sort of insider or part of the particular social class that ‘Alan’ is aiming at (I don’t even have an English degree!), but he just goes to show that he is. And there’s nothing wrong with that – he’s an English professor – but I don’t get what he’s trying to prove. That writers write, I suppose, instead of declaring their genius, but he inadvertently makes the point that certain people get read and get published not just because they’ve written something good, but because they have networks of people that at the very least encourage them, and mostly help them get published. Which is the opposite of the point he’s trying to make.
Right. It’s hard not to tie this piece, as personal as it is, to the recent pieces about diversity in publishing, and that people outside these networks by virtue of class, race, or what have you struggle to find a place in that world.
That is precisely what I thought as well. Yeah, the kid sounds a bit out there, but the author is definitely making the point of “I just have so many other talented friends who publish a lot and are respected authors! Total coincidence, who could tell?” Which is kind of undermining his own thesis statement
Yeah, there was a great core of genuine affection and pride in his friends there, but the Alan hook gives it this sort of defensive tone. I felt like there were two essays there, one “Alan, dude, Alans of the world, be kind and do the work” and one “dang, you guys, I know some awesome writers and you should know them too,” but setting them up in comparison was a little off, like you say.
This is a great point. If we read Alan as a white male who feels entitled to people’s readership, that’s one thing, but what if Alan is part of a demographic that’s marginalized by publishing? I’m not a writer, but I’m in an industry that suffers from diversity issues, and there are times when I’ve definitely felt like I’m not getting the recognition I deserve & felt the urge to cry “cronyism!” So at that point, it becomes way more uncomfortable to call Alan delusional, and way more condescending to write back with “maybe try making some friends?”
Fun fact: I’m terrible about reading bylines. So when I read “Alan”‘s creepy, threatening response, I thought that the professor in question was a woman, because that’s the kind of language people use to threaten and intimidate women. But by the third long, out-of-context paragraph, I had to go check the byline, because I realized he must be a dude. And then lo and behold, he was a Dude English Professor with Talented Writer Friends.
Yes, I had the same reaction. The problem with what Alan is doing is that he’s being rude and threatening; it would be just as rude and threatening if someone the writer knew emailed him out of the blue to say “read this incoherent thing I wrote about Shakespeare and anoint me the next big thing, or else.” It’s fine to say, “No, stop being weird and sending me vague threats, I am a busy person with a life and professional responsibilities that do not revolve around you.” But saying, “No, because my friends are better than you” feels like it’s . . . missing the point? Like he’s congratulating himself on the insularity of his friend group instead of addressing the entitlement of this random?
It read like “I’m telling you that I’m busy, but not so busy I can’t write you 2,000 words about how everybody else is more important.”
I’m not a fan of Alan’s method, but the response seems strange.
Yeah, “I’m sorry, I’m going to read Blues-inspired poetry and narrative essays about dealing with death and cancer that come recommended to me before I’m going to read some rando who won’t even introduce or explain himself’s weird Shakespeare analysis” would have made been much better while still conveying the “wtf dude get down” sentiment.
I really don’t think he was writing this for Alan; I think that he was writing it for the more polite, less aggro writers who nonetheless might try to throw their manuscripts over his transom or what have you. I think that he wanted to not simply reiterate the infamous “I Will Not Read Your Fucking Script” thing, so instead he went a bit overboard on the “I really like writers, I just know too many” angle.
It’s weird because Alan is definitely very, very well-known for doing this (i.e. emailing strangers to promote his Shakespeare conspiracy theories), so…a) easy to ignore and b) not the “read my manuscript” guy?
Maybe the professor already had the “my friends are great and so am I” essay written, and then Alan emailed, and he thought he’d kill two birds with one stone.
As someone who grew up in NH and now lives too close for comfort… everything is wrong with it and there’s nothing NH does that can’t be found the same or better in some other state. Especially during primary season. Do you want to hate every candidate from every possible party in under 20 minutes? Have a family dinner in NH during primary season wherein your parents just want to watch a broadcasted weather report.
(first time upstate NY bf came to visit he asked a lot of questions about NH. I responded to every one by screaming “live free or die!” He eventually got the idea.)
That Dear Prudence sounds exactly like an ex of mine and I’d truly wonder if it were the same person except the timelines don’t really jive. Which frightens me more in some ways, that there are many men out there like the one I dated who think threesomes with their unattractive best friend are the height of sexy fun times.
Sure, the focus on the NH primary is over the top, but boo to that essay.
Poor white people? Having power? Oh the humanity!
I’m from Iowa and my least favorite thing about being an early state is the cyclical debate among outsiders as to whether we are A) simple and quaint or B) filthy trailer trash. Like, I’m not sure that ANY state should go first, but that’s precisely because I don’t think any part of the country is so morally and culturally distinct from the rest of the nation to justify special status.
So I just found out that I didn’t get a job that I was rather excited about; really cool agency and I loved the Head of Productions whole philosophy about being a producer (we had a good chat about the difference between a producer and a project manager, because there is a difference people. They’re not interchangeable titles.).
So boo, having a shitty day.
That sucks, sometimes it seems like there’s no justice in the world. You should go treat yo’ self tonight!
I feel like I said some stupid things in the interview, and the recruiter said they haven’t picked someone else over me, they just decided I wasn’t right for the job which is making my brain go to all kinds of fun places.
Wine and pancakes tonight. Its only Tuesday but wine is a must.
Oh yeah, it’s Pancake Day! Happy Pancake Day! Drunky pancakes taste the best.
Honestly, you’ve probably heard this before, but you should ask for feedback. There will be other awesome jobs, but it never hurts to know what you can work on for next time. You might just need more experience with a particular thing.
And that recruiter doesn’t sound very nice! I know they want their cut, but still! Remember, it’s just a job and not actually about you as a person!
I feel like I should put rum on them? Rum on pancakes sounds tasty.
I’ve asked for more feedback; I paraphrased what the recruiter told me (I have other reasons I dislike him, *cough* boob starer *cough*, but in this case he was ok), he said there wasn’t a reason and then I asked if someone else was picked over me (I can get over someone being better than me… for now.) and he said no, but he’s gone back and asked for some more feedback.
I feel like, although this was for a junior position, I wasn’t experienced enough for them, and for some reason I may have come across as a bit flaky (When they asked why I was leaving my current job I said because I’ve been there long enough, 18 months, which has been a fine answer for everyone else, but they all got a bit shirty and started going on about how they want a commitment from whoever joins, they don’t want someone who’s going to just be there for a year. Which was never my intention, but hey ho.).
As usual I’m stuck in a position of trying to get people to take a chance on my attitude and instincts (which are good), because I know I can pick up technical skills and processes (which I do lack a bit. Bloody agile development that my current place refuses to do keeps tripping me up!), but employers always want to hire in the hard skills, regardless of soft skills like a serious willingness (and proven ability) to learn on the job.
Why do employers always go in for the ‘proven experience’ instead of investing in the right people? Once I lost out on an admin job to a woman who had slightly more H&S experience than I had. Soon after she was hired, her coworkers found out she couldn’t use Excel at all. Like, not even inserting a column. Nothing. The memory of that experience still keeps me warm at night.
Maybe it wouldn’t have been the right place for you, if they didn’t understand you weren’t going to turn around and leave again right away. I hope you get some proper feedback, but if not, chalk it up to experience, I guess?
YES RUM. Bananas and rum, or rum sauce, or just drink it. I’m an Appleton’s girl myself, but you can’t really go wrong with rum.
Why are we bothering to criticize New Hampshire? Like any other state, it has its really good and really bad people. The problem is the electoral system giving them so much power for no apparent reason. We need to have a national primary, all on the same day, and stop this ridiculous war of attrition/popularity contest. It’s so stupid, time-consuming, and money-wasting.
Can we get rid of the Electoral College, too?
This election has made me believe in parliamentary democracy. People would be rewarded for cooperation! We probably wouldn’t have term-length stalemates! Gerrymandering might be less of thing (? maybe, let me hope)! Election season wouldn’t last three years! Whackadoodles who want to work for the government to try to dismantle it from the inside…
Sorry, feelings of hopelessness overwhelmed me and I have to end this comment now.
Honestly, the current US democracy is making me think longingly of monarchy. The leader is born to the job and raised/taught to be a good monarch, and everyone else can go about their business.
I have waxed poetic about my desires for a parliamentary style democracy in the US before. At length. Like for an hour straight. It seems like all the cool kids are doing it, my fellow Americans! Let’s do it too and figuratively burn the electoral college down! I mean, we don’t need no water, right?
3-month campaign season. No exceptions.
Try a 6 week campaign season. We live the dream here in the Antipodes. Sure our leaders are still doofuses bt we waste a lot less time changing the channel away from election nonsense
And if we had a national primary, maybe Iowa would be forced to give up the caucus! Because it makes no sense! Why is this still a thing my home state does every four years?
As a native New Hampshirite we definitely shouldn’t be the political center of anything, and the Union Leader IS run by a right-wing fuckboy, but WOW. Did that WaPo article need to be so vicious? I haven’t seen anything that exhaustively, needlessly mean-spirited in a while.
I can’t even read it. I’m having one of the worst days right now and although I despise the NH primary with all of my heart, I still love my state (although I don’t live there anymore).
I hope things pick up soon! You have made a wise choice; it’s not worth a read unless you love feeling unfairly picked on by someone who should know better. Not a good feel, IYAM.
Nothing is more spiteful than Beltway media when they are reminded that election results may not reflect their personal preferences.
I thought it was from the 60’s and that made it less harsh for me, but I just checked and it’s from ’88 soooo…yeah.
Wow, harsh words for the Granite State. Calling The Old Man of the Mountain “possibly the least inspiring famous rock formation in America?” I, for one, still remember where I was on May 3, 2003!
(Things have changed in NH since 1988. Marginally, we’re no longer so white and homogenous – my hometown is a refugee resettlement city, for example, with significant Bosnian, Sudanese, Congolese, Bhutanese, and Somali populations (among others). It is ridiculous that NH has such an outsized role in the political process, but probably no more ridiculous than Iowa’s role. The fault there lies with political parties, I think, rather than something intrinsic to the NH primaries. There’s certainly enough money and political capital in other places that some other state could take it over).
I guess I’ll console myself after reading this article by eating a maple sugar candy moose, purchased with no sales tax!
Also, wow – surprisingly high number of Granite Toasters.
I don’t remember where I was- but I know I was sad about it! The forlorn Wikipedia page picture is great.
Toronto Toasties! Would anyone be interested in getting a group to attend that event?
I cannot get over TNC’s writing. His stark reckoning is a breath of fresh air and a punch to the gut.
I haven’t even read this yet, but reading Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah on Chirlane McCray (wife of Bill DeBlasio, mayor of New York, but obviously impressive person in her own right) is a great way to spend some time today. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/14/magazine/chirla…
Stop imagining your daughter-in-law fondling naked men, and all your troubles will be over.
I don’t know how the rest of you feel about the new Prudie, but today’s advice is excellent, as expected.
Mallory is perfect in every way and her responses are A+++ at smacking down ridiculous people.
My feelings are those of intense adoration and admiration.
That guy sounds like The Worst. I mean, aside from the misogynistic paternalism, like… 58 isn’t that old? Certainly it is not too old to realize that (non-sexual) massage therapy is a real thing that all kinds of non-athletes enjoy?
Huh. I assumed that letter writer was a lady!
Totally could be! I guess I assume anyone who does something I find objectionable is a man until I’m told otherwise.
Excellent policy, will adopt same.
Yeah, the “I am 58 years old” detail was so strange and hilarious I had to wonder if it was fake. “I am 58 years old, you cannot fool me with these mythological *giant air quotes* massage…therapists.”
My parents are both over 60 and are perfectly aware there is such a thing as real non-sex-worker massage therapists! Age is no excuse, man/lady!
My dad is 57 and has had people come over to give him massages. It was very much not a sex thing. (He has been a keen runner for the last few decades; an acquaintance/masseur would come round occasionally and give him running-injury-related massges, sometimes on the kitchen table. It was immensely non-sexual.)
Even if she is a sex worker, WHO CARES?! Its a well paying job, if she likes the work and her partner is on board, then good for her. Ugh, busybody relatives are the worst.
That was my favorite response of a column filled with great responses.
I don’t know how the rest of you feel about the new Prudie
She is my favorite, and I want to invite her to brunch and gossip with her while we drink too many mimosas. Is that weird? I hope it’s not weird.
I was not really here for Pre-Mallory-Prudence (except for when things went really off the rails… being poisoned by your MIL???) but I am enjoying Mallory’s tenure deeply, and not just because I’m a toastie.
i must admit it’s a little less thrilling to read an advice column where i agree with literally everything the columnist says. this is a very, very tepid problem to have.
Yes, but you can live vicariously through her answers! When somebody is a terrible person on the internet, we can now observe Mallory telling them that, in plain language.
Today in Dads: my father has been a successful newspaper editor since 1982, and I just got a call from him asking how to use track changes. Dads!
I had to talk my father through copy and pasting a web link into an email one time. The man owns more tech than he knows what to do with, but apparently copy and paste is beyond him.
I still remember the time in about 2002 when my dad waited for me to come home to ask how to save to a floppy disk my mum howling from downstairs, “I could have told you that!”
My Dad-like boss just sent out an office email in which he quoted a piece of advice his Dad gave him. It’s an endless chain of Dads, stretching back forever into history.
It’s just Dads all the way down!
Love? It’s been so long I don’t remember what it’s like.
What is love? Baby don’t hurt me, don’t hurt me, no more….
Also, I second that emotion.
Yes, but I believe in a thing called love.
Only if you feel like giving me
a lifetime of devotion.
I actually said “I can’t wait until I never have to hear about New Hampshire ever again” to my roommate the other day while watching the same 7000 political ads aimed at NH voters over and over again (we do not live in New Hampshire) and I still find that article really unnecessarily mean!! What was that dude’s issue?
Speed dating for rabbits
I was prepared to hate this just from the title (I was imagining something like that dog hookup app thing) but it’s really just a program for finding a compatible shelter bunny to keep your lonely bun happy, so I’m all for it.
Oh, that article is adorable. It’s actually what Mr. Chemicaldefect and I informally did to choose our second rabbit. We brought our lonely rabbit to the SPCA and they set up a little pen and we let him meet each of their rabbits individually. It worked out perfectly-we got this adorable English Spot/Lop mix who gets along great with him (and only him-she hates all people, including us, and all other animals and bites EVERYONE). Both the rabbits are fixed, so no worries about us soon having 800 rabbits, and they are best friends now.
I totally read the link as “Speed dating for rabbis” and was subsequently very confused by the rest of your comment.
Ugh the perils of dating as a rabbinical student, let me tell you WHAT. (it is awful, that’s what)
Iiiiiii just came into work this morning and my newly-upgraded computer prompted me to log into RescueTime. Which I did not, of course. I really, sincerely hope that it just came pre-packaged with Windows 10, because if IT put that on here on purpose, there is going to be a lot less Toast for me in the future. 🙁
I have bad news for you: that definitely does not come with Windows 10. On the other hand, if there hasn’t been a missive from IT saying “you must now use this” it could be just a suggestion and not an order.
After stewing over this ALL DAY yesterday I remembered trying to install RescueTime on my work computer several months ago, when I first started using it at home, but I ran up against an administrator-password lock, so I’m guessing that either it finished installing itself when IT logged in to do the upgrade, or she found the installer and helpfully finished it for me. Either way, I seem to have scared myself pretty effectively.
IS ANYONE WATCHING CRAZY EX-GIRLFRIEND? BECAUSE LAST NIGHT’S EPISODE WAS PERFECT.
NOT YET BUT I FINALLY SAW THE EPISODE BEFORE THAT YESTERDAY AND I JUST WANT TO SAY THAT I SHIP IT
oH MAaAaAn you need to see last night’s. IT’S OPEN SEASON ON ALL THE SHIPPING IN THAT SHOW.
TEXTMERGENCY!
So good!!!!
Paula and her husband’s recital of the title song was perfection!
YES YES YES
(also I am very nervous because I wrote kind of a ranty comment about the AV Club reviewer using the phrase “. . .make him a prime candidate for taking Jane’s virginity.” idk, once you get a reply from TodvanderWarff that’s 40% the word “fuck,” you kind of side-eye. And no, I’m not going to look up his name properly.)
Are Archie comics actually A Thing that people read? Like, for fun? I thought they manufactured them specifically for school nurses’ offices.
They got weird (and pretty dumb/frequently sexist) for a long minute there, but they’re rebooting again with some really good writers and artists. Looks like it could be interesting.
I’ve never even seen an Archie comic, but now that Fiona Staples is drawing them I’m wondering if I should pick one up to try…
I don’t know what the artistic equivalent of “reading the phonebook” would be, but I would buy a book that consisted of Fiona Staples illustrating the phonebook.
I’m pretty sure up until recently, the equivalent was in fact reading an Archie omnibus, to be honest.
I never thought I’d want to read an Archie comic, but between Fiona Staples doing Archie and Erica Henderson doing Jughead, I think I need to now.
my partner actually buys and reads them from the grocery store. I was amazed the first time she did it. I’m glad they’re doing interesting things.
I have a good friend who does the same and I sort of wonder if he’s messing with me somehow. Who does that?
Whose grocery store sells comic books???
Kroger has them by the US Weekly’s at the checkout counters!
above the candy next to the TV Guide and Soap Opera Weekly!!!
Just Archie digests.
I do sometimes. It’s a nostalgia thing – I read Archie when I was a kid and sometimes the time just feels right to pick up a new Archie digest. I pass them on to my nephew the voracious reader as my dad did for me.
And I’ve also learned exactly how much strip recycling they do in those digests over the years.
I truly believed that last year I heard something about Archie dying in a fire and thus ending the series but now apparently that is not true, or they made a Jughead spinoff? Or I don’t even know and I probably shouldn’t talk because I have only ever experienced Archie in checkout lines and the aforementioned nurses offices.
One of the recent Archie titles did end with him dying–I don’t remember the name of it, but it’s the one that takes place when they’re all grown up and out of high school. But he dies taking a bullet to save Kevin (who’s the gay friend), because Kevin’s a senator on a gun control platform after his husband/partner got killed in some kind of shooting. And I guess someone with a gun was pretty upset about Senator Kevin and tried to shoot him?
Anyway, Archie died heroically to save his gay senator friend.
…WHAT.
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_with_Archie#The_Death_of_Archie
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_with_Archie#Th… />
Yeah, that happened.
Archie comics have definitely been getting . . . more exciting in the last two or three years.
I honestly haven’t actually read any of it (yet–I feel like I might have to now) but that’s one of those character death stories that kind of sticks in your brain as soon as you hear it because it sounds amazing.
Ooh I know this! So the ones you can buy in the grocery checkout line are “Archie Digests,” which usually collect a bunch of short, stand-alone, funny (or “funny”) storylines from over the entire history of Archie. But they also put out regular monthly continuity-based comic books, like the kind you buy at a comic shop, which generally have a more diverse cast, more modern-feeling stories, and are less wedded to the “high school comedy” genre. The current Archie series is a recent reboot, this Jughead series is just starting, and there’s a Sabrina horror series that also started fairly recently.
I’ve read the first couple issues of the Sabrina horror one and it’s fantastic so far. The art is gorgeous, the writing is pretty firmly in the supernatural horror genre, and the first issue ends with some kind of demon woman being accidentally summoned by two other unnamed teen witches who were working together to cast some kind of love hex or something on a boy.
The two unnamed girls were a blonde and a brunette from the nearby town of Riverdale and the boy they’re co-cursing (hexing?) is named Archie.
You guys, Samantha Bee’s new show has debuted and I am excited and distraught. Excited because I love her (if you haven’t read her book you should) but distraught because TBS does not have a Roku channel.
Yes! I really want to watch it but we don’t have cable and I don’t know how!
Everyone should watch the first episode it is fantastic!
I had the pleasure of attending a test show as well and saw a field piece that has yet to air which was biting and informative, just something to look forward to everyone 🙂
I am also distraught that Roku hasn’t gotten on the TBS train since the TBS streaming site leaves a lot to be desired.
That’s because TBS is offered via SlingTV (which can be streamed via Roku). I liked their channel lineup but found their reliability unacceptable.
You can buy it on Amazon streaming! (at least in the US.) I’m going to buy the whole season.
My roommate just got Roku and I am incredibly unhappy with the fact that I have to buy a package to watch certain channels. I was looking forward to her show, too.
Also, they only have the CBS All-Access Scam. Makes me want to ear flick whomever thought that greedy money scheme through. I just want to watch Colbert on the TV with him.
That letter by Mary Pickford is so interesting given the fact that it was a major scandal when she did eventually bob her hair http://letsmisbehaveprecodefilmtribute.blogspot.i…
Stuff your mom never told you also did a podcast on it -http://www.stuffmomnevertoldyou.com/blog/tag/mary-pickford/
SANSA’S SO BIG NOW
One of the things I’ve encountered as a librarian: self-proclaimed geniuses who email you asking you to buy their opuses for your library. And who then, sometimes, get really bent out of shape if you don’t respond to them. Not my favorite part of the job, for sure.
lol are you even the person who does acquisitions?
“This is my magnificent octopus!” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXvhmnD2r1E
Oh, Mother, the hopeful authors. Even the ones who would donate a copy of their work were sometimes flabbergasted that we couldn’t guarantee that it would actually be added to the collection. (My favorite was the would-be cartoonist who not only couldn’t really draw–not necessarily a disqualification, as there are numerous successful cartoonists whose drawing skills are pretty primitive–but also stole gags from better artists. He even stole the National Lampoon cover that said “Buy this magazine or we’ll shoot this dog.”)
ditto people off the street with their pencil sketches at the art museum. so much fun. except creepy and no.
I’m reading a book right now where everyone rides giant dogs and bears instead of horses so when I see current pics of Sansa I’m like, “It’s all real.”
Strangely, last night I saw a women trying to sit on her golden retriever sidesaddle. It was weird, she would put some of her weight down, the dog would get confused and then she’d stand back up. I don’t know how long it went on, as I drove off when the light changed, but I am truly surprised that it came up organically today.
I have a corgi and I admit I do occasionally try to use him as a stepstool (unsuccessfully) and a pillow (successfully.)
From the New Hampshire article: In 1889 the state’s Department of Agriculture published a booklet entitled “Price List of Abandoned Farms in New Hampshire.” In 1891, a woman named Kate Sanborn wrote a book called “Adopting an Abandoned Farm,” which she followed with an even more successful sequel called “Abandoning an Adopted Farm.”
Is Detroit the new New Hampshire?
She’s a proto-Toastie, isn’t she? I bet we have a Toastie who did a thesis on her…
Here’s a link I liked:
http://www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/2016/2…
It’s an interview with poet Eileen Myles.
‘Eileen has never been afraid of offending anyone. “If we [lesbians] band together, they call it separatism, but when men do it, they don’t call it that,” she observes. “It’s just men. It’s just masculinity.”’
Oh man, that Prudie question. If my math is right, the LW has been with this guy since they were both around 15 or 16, so it’s possibly the only relationship either of them have been in, and it features deep insecurity and jealousy along with this fixation on hooking up with this childhood friend. There are wayyyyy more issues here than “partner wants to try a sex thing I am not so into.”
Also, LW, DO NOT HAVE THIS THREESOME.
icymi: emma thompson looked amazing in a pink jumpsuit sunday night.
(also: this is the first time i wanted to use the term “slay” to describe anything, but “emma thompson slayed(?) in a pink jumpsuit” did not roll of my tongue quite as naturally as i thought it would)
I would defer to the Official Toast Linguist in this, but I think it rolls better when you say “slayed it” rather than just “slayed.” (Or at least that’s what I’m familiar with.) And I think that I agree that with this idiom the past tense is slayed and not slew, but now that I’m actually trying to think about it, I’m unsure.
Also, she sure looks fabulous, but that isn’t a jumpsuit–which is, by definition, one piece.
I TOTALLY MEANT TO SAY PANTSUIT AND NOW I CAN’T EDIT IT
FORGIVE ME FASHION GODS AND TOASTIES
I love the title of one of the links below that, it’s a micro-tragedy: “I Cheated On My Colorist And Now I Regret Everything.”
Hey all!
I don’t know if any of you remember but on Friday’s open thread I was asking about cat adoption advice.
A quick update, I decided to adopt both cats!
I have a mom and kitten coming home with me in early March!
I’d love to get some name suggestions from everyone…anything goes! I’m looking at pair names, individual names. Possibly something Yiddish? I’m open haha
I don’t have a good picture of the mom yet, but here is the baby-
Haha well apparently I don’t know how to post comments on intensedebate….but this google picture is a good representation of the mom cat- http://www.ariionkathleenbrindley.com/balinese-ca…
Mama is so pretty if so! My aunt once had cats named Tangle and Woody, possibly my favorite pair names ever. I don’t know if the kitten is male or female or if that would matter to you, but in her case Woody was a fella. I also had a neighbor whose lady cat was named Calliope, and every time she sang it out I thought about what a lovely name it is.
Wow I really like Calliope!
I can confirm both cats are ladies, and the mother is quite regal looking in person.
My cat is named Calliope! Her sister is Clio, and they are my furry Mewzes.
(it may be for the best that current conditions don’t allow all nine, though.)
eta: haha thought this had my disqus icon. if the original comment went through, Joseph Cornell via Lee Miller is NOT my cat. But since I keep missing cocktail hour:
hurray for you and your new kitties, whatever you decide to call them!
Thank you! And your kitty is adorable 🙂
Congrats on the cats!
True story, my parents named their first cats Shayna and Punim.
That’s funny someone suggested those names to me yesterday! They are pretty adorable
It was my parents’ one and only spurt of pet-name-based creativity, lol. After that they just kept whatever name the animals came with, no matter how stupid. They currently have a dog named Happy. Which, granted, is very apt…
——– Original message ——–
Not Yiddish, but Naomi and Ruth would be too sweet. That story always gets me verklempt.
I desperately want a cat+dog pair so that I can name them Zasu Kitts and Thelma Dogg after the comedy duo from the early 30s. (Zasu = Say-zoo, if you’re unfamiliar). For two cats, I might go with Patsy Kitty or Catsy Kelly, as Patsy Kelly was Thelma Todd’s partner after Zasu Pitts contracted with a different studio.
/nerdout
I am a firm believer in waiting till the cats are resident and you’ve gotten to know them a bit before deciding on appropriate names.
This sounds like something Mallory would write. For the next Link Roundup? http://theconcourse.deadspin.com/i-dont-think-dav…
That post is amazing and Albert is a terrific writer and I really miss Foodspin.
Foodspin was the obly thng I read on that site. Of course they killed it.
I was already pretty good at cooking muscles and he made me better!
I have only a few mean bones in my body. One of them is entirely dedicated to enjoying mockery of David Brooks.
My god, this is a masterpiece of mockery. I am struggling not to bust out into wild cackles at my desk.
Completely lost it at this point:
How he burns with resentment. The hot millennials do not want a New York Times columnist from whom to receive stimulating discourse about the moral and attitudinal deficiencies of the poor. No, they want a “not-repulsive person” who “does not look like a waxed talpid,” thanks to some cockamamie notion that “sexual attraction” might be a more fruitful basis for a relationship than “being lectured by a fusty boomer pissbaby about how masculine chivalry is the bedrock of civilization and both were destroyed by the sexual revolution.”
Woo, another new Dear Prudence! Mallory Ortberg, I am HERE for your advice.
About that “feminist dating nonfeminist”, I could start a one-woman cheer section where I just stomp and shout “D! T! M! F! A! DTMFA!”
D! T! MFA! DTMFA!
Go team, go! Go far away from guys who treat you like you’re not just as much of a person as they are!
Ooh, I read that and when she said “this is just the bad 5%, the other 95% is awesome!” I could only shake my head and go nononono honey, that 5% is just the tip of the awful iceberg, get out now.
Oh, I know! I was all “Is this the guy you want to have daughters with?” and “God forbid this doctor boyfriend is an OB/GYN.”
Oh my god, I hadn’t even thought of that. HORRIFIED FACE.
I’d bet cash money that the only times this guy isn’t being an active asshole (that 95%) are when A) she’s doing something that pleases him or B) he temporarily forgot she was a woman.
ETA: Or C) he is asleep.
Upon reflection, I hope that guy is, like, a prostate specialist or something, b/c doctors like that are the reason women can’t get any of their medical issues taken seriously.
Oh yes, he is that condescending doctor who’s just waiting for you to stop talking so he can tell you that you’re overreacting and everything is fine.
D! T! MFA! DTMFA!
I hope this is to the rhythm of “Uptown funk you up, uptown funk you up”
Why yes, yes it definitely is.
Since Stephen King has been mentioned here a few times recently, I’ll say, in connection with the New Hampshire piece, that he brings a lot of that sort of thing to his books: that unsentimental eye that notes the decayed, clapped-out reality behind the forced and enforced quaintness of Ye Olde Newe Englande. ‘Salem’s Lot, in particular, has a searching and merciless examination of the town that was basically dead or dying well before the vampires moved in. He’s also talked about how Carrie is based on a couple of girls he knew in his high school who had it even worse than his own family.
Yeah, do not look up the story of the girl with the one outfit who was part of the inspiration for Carrie if you don’t want to be depressed for a week.
I love that on the bob-story page one of the ladies describes “cross-word puzzles” as a passing fad!
One of the Lord Peter Wimsey short stories has crossword puzzles being a hip new fad, and it’s very entertaining from a 21st-century perspective.
Uncle What’s-his-name’s will! So much fun. I love that Peter just wants the poor girl to get a decent haircut.
Now I feel bad for finding the New Hampshire article funny.
Sometimes I just like reading a scathing article about somewhere I’ve never been and enjoy laughing at the hyperbole. I can see how people who are actually from there would be upset. To me it’s sort of a mythical place in a near-mythical country….
And I LOVED Robert Frost’s:
Now I live in Vermont
That bobbed hair article was the best thing. Especially the TOTAL HUMBLEBRAG letter about the person who just cannot help it! She’s a trendsetter and everyone follows her lead! Please tell me it was tongue-in-cheek.
I first cut off my hair while at boarding school—too many years ago to tell!—so that I could go swimming during a vacant forty-minute period and appear in my next class without visible proof that I had been frolicking around on a springboard when I should have been growing wiser and better fitted to become an interesting dinner partner.
In a very few days I was shocked to see the outcome of my “sacrifice of convenience.” New bobbed heads popped up regularly each morning at breakfast, and, as the truth leaked home, irate parents wrote indignant letters to the principal, so that the joy and comfort I had found in my short hair became short-lived. I was sent for and the style of my coiffure made very plain to me.
After I came out of the hospital I tried to cover up my clipped head by wearing, whenever I appeared in public, a tight turban or toque under which I tucked every spear of hair except some little square sideburns. Those of my friends who saw me in the country without a hat begged me to wear my short hair in public, and so one night when we were going to town to dinner I wore it down, and in order to keep it in place wrapped a flat seed-pearl necklace around my forehead—which was, I think, the beginning of what they afterwards called the “Castle Band.”
Well, it’s Irene Castle and she was a major, major trend-setter in her time. She and her husband Vernon were THE professional dancers in the lead-up to WWI and set styles for just about everything. And she really was the main inspiration for the bobbed hair style. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vernon_and_Irene_Ca…
The bobbed hair essays are totally making me think of Bellwether by Connie Willis y/y?
YES *high-fives*
YES *high-fives*
I thiiiiiiink that actually what happened was I tried to install it a while ago, ran into the admin password lock, and gave up; and either it finished itself during the upgrade or IT helpfully finished it for me. I simply cannot imagine anyone at work having the time or inclination to monitor our web browsing (not to mention I really do not have the kind of job where that is a helpful check on how productive I'm being). So much less panic today.
The Electoral College makes everything more complicated than it needs to be, IMO. Two US presidents became president without winning the popular vote but won the Electoral College, which is just all sorts of ridiculous.
But yeah, it was established for MOAR BETTAR DEMOCRACY. It may've worked way back when, but now? Not so much.
And how easy it is, after reading articles, and doing the online dating stuff, and being told to be Different to Meet That Person, to go on a first date and act NOT AT ALL LIKE YOURSELF. I did that for years until I lucked out and met my current (and hopefully forever) partner.